


Forget-Me-Not

by sudaki



Category: Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 13:52:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4437977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sudaki/pseuds/sudaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reinhard and his tunnel-vision.  End of season 1 spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forget-Me-Not

To be honest he doesn't have much stomach for it – the state funeral with all the flowers and the fanfare, lines of soldiers in uniform and noblemen in fine black mourning. 

The white mantle feels wrong today, but he didn't know what else to wear.

He didn't know what else to do.

He's poured out all his anger, choked down his grief, thrown himself into his work and today he finds himself empty. He left all the arrangements to others – asked Fraulein Marindorf to delegate tasks as she saw fit. 

The result pays copious and deserved honor to the deceased, without being too lavish. It's dignified, stately, and just impersonal enough to extend the empire's grief and gratitude to all those who have fallen in the line of duty. It's perfect. It's all wrong.

He had to make a speech, but he can't remember anything he said. All the voices around him sound muffled, distant. He can't stand to stay near the coffin so he makes his way out of doors, wandering idly through the gardens where small groups of mourners stand chatting in hushed voices. 

He wants to be alone. It's only right for him to be alone. The only other person who ought to be here now is his sister, and she isn't.

It isn't fair. None of it is fair.

He finds himself in a secluded corner, with flowers growing in neat rows along a stone wall. The scent brings back a memory; faint, and indistinct.

With a start, he realizes he isn't alone. Hunched near the ground like a dark gray statue is an old woman, who turns at the sound of his footsteps. 

"What are you doing here?" he opens his mouth to say. She is a simple country woman, plainly dressed, her graying hair worn in a frayed knot at her neck.

A sudden gust of wind blows the scent of the flowers full in his face, and they recognize one another. He doesn't know if she says the words aloud but he can hear them anyway, see them written in the deep twisted lines on her face and buried in the darkness of her eyes.

_"You took my son from me."_

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't shake this idea, for some reason, but I feel like it turned out kind of dreck.


End file.
